Tom's Online Journal

Liesel
Started the book of quiet and scared but as the story progressed Liesel became bold and confident. Liesel pushed her way into the groups of Jews looking for Max, towards the end of the book, whereas at the start of the book she didn’t even have the confidence to talk properly with Rosa.
Her main desire was to find her real mother because Rosa doesn’t show her the love that a real mother should.  had a desire to learn how to read. Filled the alphabet that Hans made with words everyday so that she would no longer be known as dumpkoft. As the book continues Liesel becomes more intelligent and even gains the writing and reading ability to write her own book, the idea given to her by Max.

Hans
Hans is kind to Liesel the entire way through the book without fail.
Hans has this sense of responsibility for Max because Max’s father helped him during the war and he depends on his accordion to make money to support their family and without Max’s father he would never have learnt to play. When Max arrives he feels responsible for the boy and his only option is to allow him to hide in there basement even if it risks Hans’s families lives.
Rosa
at the start wanted both children only because she wanted more money from the government  “What’s wrong with this child?”  Rosa didn’t really care for Liesel she only wanted the money that having Liesel gave her.
by the end of the book actually showed genuine love for Liesel
Her determination and aggressive attitude it what helps keep the family and Max alive. Without her intense stubbornness Max probably would have died when he became hypothermic.

Rudy
Rudy changes from a small immature boy into a more sensible and intelligent teenager.  Throughout the text he dreams of kissing Liesel and he dies without fulfilling his wish.  He dreams of being Jesse Owens but in his innocence doesn’t realize how bad this is in Germany. Rudy doesn’t understand that being black in WW2 Germany is bad.  Rudy comes from a large poor family and so is always hungry.

1. The colours talked about in the book are used to create a more vivid and descriptive image in the readers head.
   The white could represent a peaceful death, such as Liesel’s brother dying on the train, whereas the black could represent a sudden brutal death like the pilot dying in the plane crash.
2. “it’s the three in which I saw her in the flesh that resonate the
   most…Red, white, black. They fall on top of each other. The scribbled
   signature black, onto the blinding global white, onto the thick soupy red.”
   Consider the Nazi flag during World War Two and its construction.” The Nazi Flag is made up of the three colours Red, White and Black. The flag represents the death and destruction caused by the Nazi’s during the war.  The red on the flag and the red mentioned by death represents fire; The burning of books and the bombs that leveled cities. These colours define Liesel because she saw from an inside perspective what Nazi Germany did during the war. She watched books burn, saw the darkness or black that Max Vandenburg lived in.
3. “To their left, flames and burning books were cheered like heroes.” p.122, “The Germans loved to burn things”,  Germany burned everything from books to people during the war.  Jewish people were killed and burned and books promoting anything that the Nazi’s opposed were burned also.

“I am all bluster—
I am not violent.
I am not malicious.
I am a result. ”

“Even death has a heart.”

These quotes show that Death itself is inherently evil. The people that cause Death, like Hitler during World War 2 are the ones who a truly evil.

“You are going to die….does this worry you?” This is Markus Zusaks way of portraying that death isnt something to be feared.

Ready Player One Written by Ernest Cline is about a dystopian future where everyone relies heavily on the virtual reality world known as the Oasis. When the creator, Halliday, dies he leaves behind his legacy and control over the Oasis as a prize to anyone who can find the 3 keys to unlock the Easter Egg he left behind. The world becomes obsessed with the search for these keys with corporations such as Innovative Online Industries ( IOI ), fueling millions of dollars into their discovery.  IOI will stop at nothing to attain total and complete control over the Oasis.  Wade Watts, a poor teenager is thrown into the chaos when he unexpectedly discovers the first key.

Ready Player One puts into perspective the greed that all humans have. Everyone who has access to the Oasis searches for the keys left behind by Halliday. IOI has hundreds of thousands of people working for them night and day to discover the keys, known as Sixers. IOI represents greed and imitates the big corporations such as Apple and Samsung that try and control our actual lives.  “Now they were trying to seize control”,  IOI seeks to control the Oasis so they can basically “rule the world”.  I feel like this books explores the ideas of how people desire power, control and money way too much.  Companies and corporations spend years finding different ways to take our money and control us. Everyone goes to extreme lengths to be better than everyone else and have the most money.

“I earned enough to keep from going hungry”, Wade Watts didn’t have any money and wasn’t controlled by greed which is why he was best suited to find Halliday’s Easter Egg. There was no risk of him being controlled by power and greed because he didn’t want the money or the power and yet he was happy. “We’re going to use all of the moolah we just won to feed everyone on the planet”, This quote proves that even after winning an unimaginable amount of money Wade would rather give it away than spend it on himself. Ernest Cline through the characters of Wade Watts and the Sixers has shown me to look at things in my own life and see whether I really need them to be happy or is it just greed that tells me I need to have them.  I feel that money and greed dictates too much of what we do in our lives. We as humans believe that money will bring us happiness, when it will only bring us more greed. A real world example is stock market investment, in which people gamble there money on the chance of making more. People take the chance that they might make millions of the few thousand that the originally invested. The money the had originally is more than enough to make them happy but greed drives them to want more.

If your a fan of video games you will thoroughly enjoy the content in this book, however I would still recommend this book to anyone, any age. Ready Player One is fast paced keeping you captivated from the first page. I believe that the ideas presented by Ernest Cline in the text are relevant to all ages, because everyone, at any age can allow greed and the desire to be better than everyone else drive them.

Is social media having a positive or negative impact on the sport of mountain biking? Mike Levy, a Pink bike editor posed this question to numerous big names in the sport to gauge the reaction from people heavily involved the industry. What makes this article interesting is the differing opinions of everyone interviewed. The stereotype that older people hate social media is broken in this article, with Wade Simmons, a pioneer of the sport, stating that he believes social media is a useful tool and actually benefits the sport. This goes against what most older people are portrayed to believe which makes the article an interesting read.

Social media has a huge impact on everyone’s lives, with over 3 billion social media users’ worldwide.  I have seen the impact of social media on mountain biking, with people travelling to places just to get a photo and claim on their Instagram account that they have ridden in a famous place.  This is the same with all aspects of life; People are spending more time focusing on social media rather than enjoying what they are experiencing.  “If you’re thinking of how many likes your selfie at the top is going to get, you’re not in the moment.” I feel that people are oblivious to the fact that their life is often controlled by social media and that articles like this one need to be shared to make people aware. Without awareness people will continue to be live their live around social media. Going places just for the photo they can post, spending ages making the perfect post to gain more followers.

“Go ride” is Matt hunter’s response to everyone who claims that social media helps them with mountain biking.  “You can find a riding partner from your couch, just by swiping and typing. Social media also provides inspiration to ride.  Seriously, though, that’s all bullshit.” Matt Hunter is trying to show people that they are relying too much on social media to solve problems when they should be looking to the real world for the solution.

Reading this has taught me to appreciate what I’m doing, and to stop worrying about my social media image. It has also taught me to stop relying on social media to fix problems and to just “go ride” as Matt Hunter believes. I need to rely more on my actual friends and real-life relationships to help me, instead of my “friends” on social media. Mike Levy hasn’t just written an article for mountain bikers, but for any person who uses social media. I can highly recommend this article to anyone, any age, who uses social media, whether they ride mountain bikes or not. The ideas and topics discussed in the article will make everyone who reads it, completely reconsider the way they view social media.

Wilfred Owen’s poems, Exposure and Dulce et decorum est are both dark, and full of death and destruction. The graphic realism Wilfred Owen portrays the idea that war is horrific and destructive, not glorious like the media paint it to be.  Exposure is all about how the cold is the deadliest enemy soldiers face.  Dulce et decorum est describes the graphic horror of war, showing to the reader that war isn’t all glory and victory. Wilfred Owens uses multiple different language techniques as ways of portraying his ideas and themes to the reader.

This example of personification “dawn massing in the east her melancholy army” from the poem Anthem for Doomed Youth is used by Wilfred Owen to show that dawn controls the deadly weather that is killing the soldiers.  “her melancholy army” is the storm clouds that are more deadly than the actually enemy the soldiers are facing. “dawn massing” was used by the author to show that the weather is out of human control. The deadliest enemy the soldiers face can’t be controlled or changed by anyone. These men are not being killed gloriously in battle like people believe, they are dying horrific, agonizing deaths in the muddy freezing trenches that they live in. Wilfred Owen wants to paint a dark and horrifying image for the reader to show that war is nothing like the glory filled stories they are told as a child.

The words “desperate glory” paint the picture of how war is glorified to cover up the true brutality of it.  Emotive language was used by Wilfred Owen to show that without glory people have no reason to justify sending soldiers into the horrific conditions that war actually is. If there was no glory then people would be shocked by the true depressing nature that war has.  People use the “glory” of war as a way of convincing innocent men into becoming soldiers and dying for their country.  The line, “The old lie, Dulce et decorum est, Pro patria mori” means it is sweet and fitting to die for ones country. The way Wilfred Owen says “the old lie” shows the reader that Owen doesn’t believe that its sweet and fitting, he believes that people are being lied to and coerced into fighting in the war.  Wilfred Owens use of Latin and emotive language is a way of showing that men are being lied to about war. War isn’t glorious and it isn’t “sweet and fitting to die for ones country” like everyone is being told.  As a child we are told all the glorious stories from our grandfathers fighting in the wars, but Wilfred Owen’s poetry challenges these glorified stories making us question what we are told and imagine the true horrors that our grandfathers faced as they sacrificed their lives for our country.

War isn’t glorious. It is dark, horrifying and brutal. The stories we are lead to believe about glory and victory over the enemy are just ways of justifying war. Wilfred Owen’s poems Exposure and Dulce et Decorum Est through the use of emotive language and personification portray this idea making the reader understand the true nature of war, and see the brutality that soldiers have to endure.

 

Iced east winds that knife us
pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces.
Poignant misery of dawn
winds nonchalance
this frost will fasten on this mud and us, shriveling many hands,
Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army

The whole way through the poem weather and nature is portrayed as the major enemy the soldiers are facing. Even though they are fighting in horrific battles the deadliest enemy they face is actually exposure to the elements.  The cold is portrayed to have killed more people than the battles themselves. The harsh conditions and environment are actually what kills the most soldiers not that battles that they fight.  “bullets streak the silence. Less deadly that the air” This line is used by the author to prove his point that the biggest threat to the soldiers is the cold, more so than even the bullets being shot at them. “poignant misery of dawn” This quote that shows that as dawn arrives it bring a certain misery to the soldiers.

The piece of personification “dawn massing in the east her melancholy army” is used by the author to show that dawn controls the deadly weather that is killing the soldiers.  “her melancholy army” is the storm clouds that are more deadly than the actually enemy the soldiers are facing. “dawn massing” was used by the author to show that the weather is out of human control. The deadliest enemy the soldiers face can’t be controlled or changed by anyone.

The simile “like a dull rumor of some other war” was used  by the author to show that the most important battle is between the soldiers and the elements and that the actual war they were fighting is irrelevant in comparison. The actual war is just a “dull rumor” something the soldiers aren’t even concerned about.

 

The way the author mentions death and mourning throughout the poem obviously indicates that he has experienced immense loss in war.  The author talks about the scream of shells and the call of the bugles which means that the author is a soldier who has experience the chaotic nature of battle.

The words “passing bells” and “drawing down of blinds” convey to the reader that the author believes in respecting the dead.  “drawing down of blinds” was a way of showing respect and honour to someone how has recently passed away.  These words could also mean that the author has experience an intense amount of loss due to war.

The line “choir of wailing shells” is a piece of personification used by the author to describe the horrific noise of the battle field. The word choir was used to show that its not just one individual shell but multiple shells wailing through the air. The word wailing is used to portray that the shells have a high pitching screaming sound. The author through the use of language techniques can create a much more detail image for the reader. If the author just wrote “choir of shells” the image painted in the readers head wouldn’t be anywhere near as vivid or powerful.

“passing bells”, ” no mockeries now”, “demented”, “monstrous anger of the guns”, “drawing down of blinds”.  All these lines or words are examples of positive and negative images used by the author to contrast and show the reader that those who experience the brutality of war still get treated with respect after they die. The soldiers have to face the “monstrous anger of the guns” and most of them will die, however the dead soldiers are still treated with the respect that they deserve represented by the “drawing down of blinds”.

 

Words:

Cancer
Wilfred Owen used the word of cancer to make the reader understand the the pain and horror that the soldiers faced. Everybody knows someone or at least understands the pain of losing someone to cancer. This means as the reader we are able to

All.
The word all was chosen because its powerful.  “All went lame; all blind”.  The author chose to use the word all instead of some because it creates a much more horrific, detailed image in the readers. All the soldiers are sick and have been affected by the war. If only some of the soldiers went lame and blind the image wouldn’t as graphic or powerful. The word all makes the reader focus more on the sentence because of the words authority.

Images:

The line “incurable sores on innocent tongues” paints an image of the soldiers being in horrific, agony but they don’t deserve what they are going through. The soldiers inhaling the mustard gas which results in agonizing pain and “incurable sores”. The “innocent tongues” tells us that the soldiers don’t deserve the pain they are being forced to endure.

The words “desperate glory” paint the picture of how war is glorified to cover up the true brutality of it. Without glory people have no reason to justify sending soldiers into the horrific conditions that war actually is. If there was no glory then people would be shocked by the true depressing nature that war has.

“the clumsy helmets” Personification
The piece of personification “the clumsy helmets” was used by the author to show how stupid and hard to use the helmets are. The author gave the helmets human qualities by calling them clumsy.  The word clumsy usually relates to someone who struggles to do things that should be simple.

The metaphor “as under a green sea, I saw him drowning” is used to describe the mustard gas the soldiers are struggling through as a  green sea, and that the coughing and not being able to breath is like the soldiers are drowning.  The author used this to create a darker and more horrific image for the reader to picture.

The line “my helpless sight” is a piece of personification that the author used to show that there is nothing that he can do. His sight is helpless meaning all he can do is sit there and stare as his dying friend lunges towards him. This creates a powerful image that the reader can understand as everyone knows what its like to lose the control of our bodies and just stand there and watch something horrific occur without being able to help.

 

Lord of the Flies Quotes

“Maybe there is a beast… maybe it’s only us.”

“Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!” said the head. For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter. “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?”

“I know there isn’t no beast—not with claws and all that, I mean—but I know there isn’t no fear, either.”
Piggy paused.
“Unless—”
Ralph moved restlessly.
“Unless what?”
“Unless we get frightened of people.”